Four years after the events of Darkness of Dragons and The reign of Queen Wasp...


Wind howled and as snow swirled in every direction, a lone NightWing fought her way through the sky.

Shit, why is the Ice Kingdom so... cold? Moonwatcher beat her wings furiously against the gale, but the icy wind carried her even further away from her destination. She gave up and dove towards the ground, but was blown back up into the air.

Come on, Moon! She urged herself. You didn't beat Darkstalker to get bested by a little wind! She tried once again and landed, folding her wings so as to not be carried away again. I need to find shelter. Moon scanned the area, but saw nothing. She drew her wings up around her and shivered, remembering tales of dragons who had frozen to death.

There. She jerked her head around, towards a small pulse of thought. There are dragons in that direction. Squinting into the distance, she saw tiny specks of light emanating from the far-away shape of a strange building. She pushed her head into the wind and began the long trudge to safety.


Winter studied the two scavengers with a look of deep and inspired curiosity, ignoring the howl of the wind outside. His team had known the storm was coming. They had more than enough supplies to get them through the next few weeks.

He had once thought that his research was a hopeless endeavour. He had nearly given up numerous times. It had been a few years since he had published his first findings in the scavengers' intelligence and similarities to a dragon's behaviour, sometimes with help from Hailstorm, Kinkajou and a SkyWing friend he had made on the way to his original Sanctuary named Cloud. Since then, he had received official funding from numerous sources to continue his research and he now had a sizeable team and a great research centre. Though they sometimes bumped heads a little bit, they got along great, for the most part.

The scavengers in question seemed as though they were having an argument. They were waving their cute little appendages in the air and squeaking furiously. Winter watched with interest from behind the glass. This was their normal viewing place, though there was another with tiny holes that could be used to secretly watch the scavengers. There were also several minor, more private scavenger enclosures for specific studies. At first, they had been afraid of the dragons watching in the window, but they now acted as though Winter and his crew simply didn't exist.

The argument, or at least whatever the scavengers were having that LOOKED like an argument, seemed to be heating up. He studied each of the scavengers in turn. The first was one of the original scavengers he had been studying, back when he had nobody but himself to rely on. She had never really been scared of him or the others, and sometimes when she saw him in the window, her mouth would turn up, almost like a smile, and she would do what almost looked like a wave with her tiny arm. The other was one of the newer scavengers, another female. She was very thoughtful and seemed to almost think outside the box. So far, she had solved a lot of the puzzles and tasks that had been part of his studies. However, the most interesting thing about her were her weird fur coverings about her, which Winter had begun to call "clothes". She had taken the default white ones that each scavenger had been given and dyed them to be a purple, almost black colour with berries. The colour reminded him of something... but he could never quite put his talon on it.

Both were gesturing wildly and squeaking frantically, and then the one in black hung her head and said something quietly. They conversed for a while like this, contempt hinting in the white-clad one's voice, then the one in black walked away. Then it clicked. The one in black reminded him of Moon.

He closed his notebook and set it down. He had moved on from Moon. He had felt terrible at first, crushed by her answer to his confession. He now only felt a pang of regret. Nothing more. He had come to terms with his past and had accepted that she was with Qibli, that she was happy, and that he could be happy without her. He thought briefly of that SkyWing who delivered supplies to their remote location. It was a long journey and she often spent the nights there before leaving the next day. He had stayed up late many nights talking to her, much to Cloud's teasing. He was happy with the way things were now.

He was free of his anger, free of all the mistakes he had made. Free of his feelings for Moon, and the things he had given up for her. He reopened his book. He was finally free.


Moon knocked frantically on the door, and to her relief, heard bustling thoughts approach from the inside.

Moons, who in Phyrria is knocking at the door at this hour? Thoughts and words ran through the approaching dragoness' head. The door opened and a gigantic RainWing peered out, closing one eye and tilting her head against the wind.

"Goodness, dear, are you hurt? Come inside." Moon garbled out a weak thank-you as she was practically dragged inside by the larger female.

The RainWing, after asking Moon what she considered to be far too many questions, left her in an empty guest room to sleep. Moon reflected on the day, lying in bed. For the first time she could think without those busy thoughts crowding or the recessive wind piercing her brain. She reflected on her predicament. I've blown way off course, she thought. Fuck, I was already late. I need to get back on track. I'll leave first thing tomorrow.


She found herself wondering what the purpose of the building was. Judging by the route she had taken to get to this room, it was quite large and probably held many dragons. The last thought she had before drifting off was that she wished she had read the sign at the door.

"Uh, boss?"

Winter looked up from his notebook at the RainWing hybrid that stood before him. Her mother worked as a staff member, a housekeeper in the farthest stretch of the word, keeping the Sanctuary up and running and the rest of the team focused and happy. They both lived and worked here, but Winter had never known much about her father, except that he was a MudWing. He glanced over at the clock and winced, seeing that it was well past midnight. He then turned his attention back to the blue-almost-black and brown scales of her spry face.

"Yes, Aven?"

"Mom wanted me to tell you, a dragon was lost in the storm and came here. On a journey, I think, probably blown north. Mom put her up in the guest bedroom."

"And why are you telling me this?" Winter inwardly cringed. That had sounded meaner than he had meant it to be, as if she were wasting his time. Maybe he wasn't as free from his past as he would have liked to think. He still hurt people without meaning to. Aven, however, didn't seem to notice.

"I just thought you would know why there's a totally new dragon at the breakfast table." She glanced at the clock. "Also, you should probably get some sleep."

"Wouldn't that make you a hypocrite? You're also awake."

She grinned. "Goodnight, Winter."

"And don't call me 'boss'!"

He shut his notebook as she left the room, smirking.


Author's note:

Hello friends!

This is my first-ever chapter of this story, and indeed on this whole FanFiction place( ? Just FanFic?) and I gotta say, I'm pretty exited. I hope I captured the canon characters' personalities correctly? If I didn't, please do tell me!

Don't get me wrong, I like MoonBli... but I also like WinterWatcher.

Also I'm not sure how often I'm going to update this, but each new chapter will be between 1 to 2 weeks of each other. (The first few chapters might be a bit slower because I'm still figuring out how the plot will go, but I've got a basic idea already don't worry) Also, any OCs you want used as other crew members? I have a cast already so I probably won't need any, but I might want to use one! (Of course, not many will read this between now and the next chapter so I probably won't get any, especially since I just joined)

I don't own Wings of Fire. Any criticism or things I got wrong with canon events or personalities? Please let me know.

Oh, ya. Happy Halloween!

Thoughtful out ;)